I figured I'd make a topic about how this game's rulesets differ from OGL. It can be updated over time to try and be fairly close to comprehensive. This is *NOT* intended as complaints- only as a quick reference for those who are familiar with the D20 system to understand how this ruleset differs, so they can get up-to-speed quickly. Personally, I think most of the limitations were excellent design choices intended to simplify the interface and allow combat to flow at a reasonable pace.

General * No skills. Concentration checks are based off the caster level * No encumbrance, only limited number of inventory slots

Classes * Only Fighter, Cleric, and Wizard available * No multiclassing, no Prestige Classes

Races * Only human, half-dwarf, and half-elf are available. Stats differences for them are available during character creation.

Crafting * Items can be enchanted to a maximum of +10 enchantment, item crafting does not take time. * Wands and scrolls are cast at full caster level, making them VERY useful * No staffs. (pointless because of wand/scroll mechanics)

Casters * Wizards and Clerics cast all of their spells spontaneously. They each "learn" two new spells at every level-up, and can additionally learn spells from scrolls they find or purchase * Metamagic casting is not a full-round action, only takes an appropriately higher-level spell slot than the original spell. Only one metamagic effect/spell * No undead turning * Extremely limited pre-buffing- generally the only spells castable outside combat are "mage armor" and heals. * Only one AoE effect with a duration on any given tile at a time (no AE silence over webbed area)

Combat mechanics * No trip mechanics * No moving through allies spaces during combat * Crits do not multiply strength/weapon bonus damage - they only roll weapon damage dice again. * No tumbling * No combat expertise or Power Attack * Cover does not prevent AoOs.

Movement * Player characters cannot move through spaces occupied by other player characters during combat.

Items * Weapon do not automatically resize. There are two new level 1 wizard spells- enlarge weapon and reduce weapon (both available as scrolls from the first magic shop) which size weapons up and down.

Okay- what did I forget?

Cheers Ikarius

Last edited by Ikarius on Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:45 pm, edited 4 times in total.

A summary of differences from OGL

Ikarius wrote:Crafting * Items can be enchanted to a maximum of +10 enchantment- each enchantment "cost" (XP & Gold) is based on how much "+" THAT enchantment is- it does not cost any more to add "Frost" to a +1 weapon than a +5 weapon, though adding +5 to a weapon is much more than adding +1 to a weapon Ikarius

Not true here. Just checked to confirm and to add acid resistance one to a +4 shield it cost 11000 gold and 880 xp while the same enchantment only cost 660 gold and 528 xp on a +2 shield.

Ikarius wrote:My bad- for some reason I thought otherwise when I tested it, but I've verified. Not sure what "max enchantment" level is- don't think that is covered in the SRD.

It's the total point cost allowed on an item. So if you had a +3 weapon with the speed and destruction enchantments you wouldn't be able to add anything else (The +3 costs three, speed costs three, and destruction costs four. Ten is the max enchantment level).

1. Dispel Magic is a Will negates spell now. Your caster level and the caster level of the spells you want to dispel do not matter. (So if a 9th level cleric cast a spell on a 20th level character with a +25 Will save, a 20th level mage casting Dispel Magic would go up against the +25 Will to dispel the cleric's spell, not 20L vs. 9L).2. The ranges of most spells have been drastically reduced and are no longer based on caster level.

There are a huge number of other modifications to spells versus the OGL content. But these two, in particular, deserve recognition.

3. Grapple attempts provoke AoO as normal from the target, but if the AoO does damage it does not spoil the grapple attempt.